Coincheck, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange that made news in January when hackers stole $500m of customers' deposits, has been sold to Japanese retail broker Monex for $34m (3.6bn yen).
The deal will see Coincheck's current head Koichiro Wada replaced by a Monex executive and any profits made over the next three years will be split with the crypto exchnage's current shareholde4rs, annopucned Monex.
Japan is seen as one of the most crypto-friendly economies but the Coincheck hack has called for tighter regulation of the sector.
However, the Monex acquisition has been well-received by the broker's shareholders. Its share price has shot up by a massive 40% since news of the Coincheck deal was first reported earlier this week, adding $330 million to its market capitalisation.
Monex plans to add Coincheck as a crypto complement to its existing FX and equities services for retail investors, said Monex chief executive Oki Matsumoto. “Cryptocurrencies are becoming an incredibly important asset class, one that we can no longer ignore,” he said.
Coincheck is currently without a license but Matsumoto said he expects it to restart operations within two months and plans to hold an initial public offering for the business at an unspecified later date.